1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of network communication and navigation services including Internet communication and navigation services. The present invention pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for providing online verification and fraud prevention services for business clients and individual users.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
The information network known as the World Wide Web (WWW), which is a subset of the well-known Internet, is arguably the most complete source of publicly accessible information available. Anyone with a suitable Internet appliance such as a personal computer with a standard Internet connection may access (go online) and navigate to information pages (termed web pages) stored on Internet-connected servers for the purpose of garnering information and initiating transactions with hosts of such servers and pages.
Many companies offer various subscription services accessible via the Internet. For example, many people now do their banking, stock trading, shopping, and so forth from the comfort of their own homes via Internet access. Typically, a user, through subscription, has access to personalized and secure WEB pages for such functions. By typing in a user name and a password or other personal identification code, a user may obtain information, initiate transactions, buy stock, and accomplish a myriad of other tasks.
One problem that is encountered by an individual who has several or many such subscriptions to Internet-brokered services is that there are invariably many passwords and/or log-in codes to be used. Often a same password or code cannot be used for every service, as the password or code may already be taken by another user. A user may not wish to supply a code unique to the user such as perhaps a social security number because of security issues, including quality of security, that may vary from service to service. Additionally, many users at their own volition may choose different passwords for different sites so as to have increased security, which in fact also increases the number of passwords a user may have.
Another issue that can plague a user who has many passworded subscriptions is the fact that they must bookmark many WEB pages in a computer cache so that they may quickly find and access the various services. For example, in order to reserve and pay for airline travel, a user must connect to the Internet, go to his/her book-marks file and select an airline page. The user then has to enter a user name and password, and follow on-screen instructions once the page is delivered. If the user wishes to purchase tickets from the WEB site, and wishes to transfer funds from an online banking service, the user must also look for and select the personal bank or account page to initiate a funds transfer for the tickets. Different user names and passwords may be required to access these other pages, and things get quite complicated.
Although this preceding example is merely exemplary, it is generally known that much work related to finding WEB pages, logging in with passwords, and the like is required to successfully do business on the WEB.
A service known to the inventor and described in patent application Ser. No. 09/208,740 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Providing and Maintaining a User-Interactive Portal System Accessible via Internet or other Switched-Packet-Network”, provides a WEB service that allows a user to store all of his password protected pages in one location such that browsing and garnering information from them is much simplified. A feature of the above service allows a user to program certain tasks into the system such that requested tasks are executed by an agent (software) based on user instruction. The service stores user password and log-in information and uses the information to log-in to the user's sites, thus enabling the user to navigate without having to manually input log-in or password codes to gain access to the links.
The above-described service uses a server to present a user-personalized application that may be displayed as an interactive home page that contains all of his listed sites (hyperlinks) for easy navigation. The application lists the user's URL's in the form of hyperlinks such that a user may click on a hyperlink and navigate to the page wherein login, if required, is automatic, and transparent to the user.
The application described above also includes a software agent that may be programmed to perform scheduled tasks for the user including returning specific summaries and updates about user-account pages. A search function is provided and adapted to cooperate with the software agent to search user-entered URL's for specific content if such pages are cached somewhere in their presentable form such as at the portal server, or on the client's machine.
In addition to the features described above, patent application Ser. No. 09/523,598 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Obtaining and Presenting WEB Summaries to Users” describes a software agent used in conjunction with a search function that is enabled to navigate to any URL or group of URL's, provided as input by a user or otherwise deemed appropriate by the service provider, for the purpose of providing summary information regarding updated content for each URL, which may be presented as an HTML information-page to the user.
Users who subscribe to many online services generally do all of their banking, investing, travel arranging, shopping, and so on while online with the Internet. Having all of his or her services available at one portal provides a convenience to a user in not having to remember a plurality of passwords, or to be required to physically log-on to each site. Similarly, the ability to obtain summary data associated with selected sites through one interface allows a user to greatly speed any decision making process related to his or her online activity. However, summary information may not help a user with certain other concerns. For example, obtaining accurate financial information concerning his entire portfolio of banking and investments would require much user calculation depending on the exact nature of the result desired. Similarly compiling a trend that reflects a user's online activity at a plurality of shopping services may also be desired.
A system known to the inventor and disclosed in a co-pending patent application entitled “Method and Apparatus for Providing Calculated and Solution-Oriented Personalized Summary-Reports to a User through a Single User-Interface” provides a service that processes aggregated data from multiple WEB-sites to return calculated solutions based on user query. Such solution-oriented processing is accomplished through a unique database-reporting engine (DBRE) that has the required data processing means. Such a service can return many different kinds of solution-orientated reports to users on a scheduled or on-demand basis.
An enhancement to the above-described system entitled “Method and Apparatus for Providing Intelligent Recommendations to Users Regarding Online Activities Based on Knowledge of Data from a User's Multiple Web-services” teaches an Internet portal system for providing recommendations to subscribers of the portal, the system having a data gathering system operating on the portal system, gathering data from multiple Internet sites associated with the subscriber, a tracking system monitoring the subscriber's on-line activity, and a recommendation engine for transmitting recommendations to the subscriber. The system is characterized in that the portal system monitors the subscriber's on-line activity, and transmits recommendations to the subscriber based on the subscriber's on-line activity and on subscriber information stored in the data repository. The system can make recommendations in a variety of situations, such as when a subscriber is shopping on-line, making investment decisions, or making banking decisions, for example.
It has occurred to the inventor that intelligent recommendations regarding a user's online status or activity may also be made to requesting third-party services such as services which seek to authenticate a person for receiving an online account or other types of online services. For example, an online bill-pay service would typically, in a prior art scenario, require an individual to provide certain documents by mail in order for a requested service to be authenticated for activation. This is due to a fact that someone who has stolen their information may easily impersonate persons operating online. Customers who walk in to an institution or mail in documents are regarded as less of a security risk. The above-described practice is true for many third-party services dealing with customer accounts and other personal information.
The capabilities of navigating to Web destinations on behalf of users along with the profiling capabilities described in co-pending applications of this specification may be enhanced with a verification recommendation engine to provide effective and reliable verification services that may obfuscate the need for third-party entities to require hard-copy items for verification purposes. Such a system and service of the present invention is detailed in enabling disclosure provided herein.